Hideous Heavens
by Most Wicked
Summary: The story of a young woman's close encounter with extra-terrestrials. R&R.
1. I

Chapter 1 

Space.

Black, cold, uninviting.

Myriads of stars shining brightly, the electromagnetic radiation they emit hurling through billions upon billions miles of void.

Earth.

A blue and white ball of warmth and life.

A beacon of hospitality in the hostile universe.

On the dark hemisphere that wasn't currently facing the sun, tiny white lights could be discerned, their artificial brightness trying, in vain, to challenge the stars themselves.

A small, shining _something_ streaked toward one of these light spots.

This _something_ rocketed towards the Earth, and entered the outer layers of the atmosphere.

Most solid objects that have been pulled by Earth's potent gravity over the centuries have burned-out quickly, their fragile structure, made mostly of ice, quickly surrendered to the awesome heat that was generated by the friction with the air particles.

But the _something_ apparently knew nothing about this – it impacted first the outer, then the inner atmospheric layers at great velocities, and it barely slowed down, but wasn't harmed in any way.

Now, cruising freely through the troposphere, it turned itself towards one of the spots of light that it seen from orbit.

Specifically – Chicago.

---

The outskirts of Chicago.

Inside a small, house, in one of the two rooms, there was a double bed.

It was currently half empty, with only one occupant sleeping in it.

The "occupant", Kelley Hombres, turned on her other side, then woke up.

She instinctively reached out with her hand to the other side of the bed, but felt only cold sheets.

Her boyfriend was in England, on a business meeting. She missed him so much, but he would be returning only in three days. In the meanwhile, she will just have to be patient – and study hard. She wanted to be a schoolteacher of literature, and so far she was doing great at university, her grades being among the highest in her class.

Well, she was awake now. Better take a snack and get back to sleep.

She slowly rose out of the bed, yawning. Her long blond hair fell on the pillow as she did.

Sleepily, she made her way to the kitchen, and opened the refrigerator door wide.

There wasn't much food there, but after a careful, thorough search, she found a jar of jam. She quickly made a couple of sandwiches, and started to eat.

She finished both, and went back to the bedroom, already feeling her eyes slowly close.

But when she entered the room, a cool breeze was blowing at her face.

The window was wide open.

She was absolutely sure it was closed during the night. Worried thoughts started to run through her mind.

What if somebody entered her apartment?

What if it was a psychopathic maniac or criminal?

The first thing she did was to close the window. Next, she went for the kitchen, to get a knife. She was going to search the entire house (which was a pretty simple task, as it was very small), and if she found somebody, she would stab him and call the police immediately.

When she was crossing the living room to reach the kitchen, a cold chill passed through her spine, though it was pretty warm inside the house.

She felt as if there's someone behind her…

She froze in fear.

Her rich imagination came to life. It was easy for her to imagine a dark figure, standing behind her with a huge knife, just like in that movie, Scream.

She spun around quickly, but saw nothing. A careful look around still revealed nothing, and she was really getting tired and should go back to sleep. She has to get-up early this morning, if she wants to reach school in time. She simply _had_ to get over this paranoia. But she wasn't sure it was only that.

What if she's really in danger?

Kelley walked over to the light switch and flipped it.

The room remained dark.

She tugged it several times, but without result.

Now, she was really afraid…

Kelley turned back toward the kitchen quickly, and a few seconds later, she was already digging frantically through the forks and spoons in the drawer, searching for a knife, when she suddenly felt it again.

As if something was behind her. Right behind her!

She spun around quickly, and gasped in horror. Her eyes bulged, and she started to scream uncontrollably, as if her throat had a life of its own.

The creature in front of her wasn't a thief, a murderer or a maniac.

It was a 'grey'.

Filled with terror, she could recognize the features of the famous alien from Independence Day, and countless other movies and TV shows. Grey in color, with an unproportionally big head, and huge, dark, evil eyes.

The creature touched her with an alien device in his hand, and she could feel her body go limp.

Her shriek has died out; she involuntarily but slowly slid to the floor.

Kelley tried to do something, crawl away, hit the alien, anything… but she was incapable of moving a muscle.

She was completely paralyzed!

She screamed silently at her body to move, to do something before this horrible creature takes her away and abducts her, but to no avail.

Now, she could discern movement behind the grey alien.

More of his kind were moving about the apartment, examining her VCR and any other electronics they could put their tiny hands on.

Another alien suddenly joined the first one in the kitchen. She watched, as if she wasn't participating, how both lifted her paralyzed body from the floor, and dragged her to the living room.

Although her body wouldn't obey her, she has not lost the ability to feel the touch of the cold, moist alien hands on her skin.

Tears were starting to form in the corners of her eyes.

Where were they taking her? Are they going to experiment on her, just like in the movies? She felt like a little girl, whose imaginative monsters suddenly came to life and claimed her to themselves.

As she was being dragged to outside the house, she looked up, toward the skies. The stars were shining very brightly tonight, and the skies were completely clear. Not a single cloud interrupted the majesty of the stars above her. Then, she lowered her gaze as far as she could go without moving her head.

She saw a real _flying saucer_ sitting on the edge of the road which passed near the house, its silvery side only 20 feet from the house wall.

There was a door in the craft's side, and it was opened wide.

The dark opening was threatening – it was as if the inanimate craft itself was mocking her, hiding the vile examination equipment and other, more horrible things from her view, inside.

When they were already close to the door and ready to enter, she was screaming without sound to the aliens, to have pity on her. But the aliens remained as threatening as they were, continuing to carry her right towards the saucer.

She watched the dark doorway as they got closer and closer. There was movement inside… something was moving there… Then, for a fraction of a second, she caught something that has thrown her into a completely new cycle of fear and horror.

A pair of gleaming red eyes.

The alien who was lifting her legs have already disappeared into the unnatural darkness, and her feet started to enter too… When she heard a loud _BANG_, and felt her upper body being dropped to the floor. The second alien released her!

She was now lying on her back, a quarter of her body inside the alien craft.

Her head was ringing from the impact with the ground when the alien dropped her. Fortunately, the greys were short, and not very strong, so they were carrying her at a height of mere inches above the ground. Her head was merely scratched, but it still hurt.

She could now hear sounds of guns firing, and unnatural screams – it were probably the aliens – filled the air.

Suddenly, there was a series of bright flashes of green light, which reflected from the silvery surface of the alien UFO.

The loud gunfire receded a bit, only to return again at full power, this time even closer to Kelley.

More screams and more green flashes followed.

A pair of grey aliens rushed out of the UFO, jumping over her motionless body as they passed. Kelley had noticed they were holding silvery-blue rifles in their hands.

Just what the hell was going on here?

Suddenly, Kelley felt in horror a cold grip on her ankles. She was being dragged into the craft!

But just then, the green flashes and gunfire sounds stopped, and she felt a grip on her arms too.

On contrast with the alien hands, these hands were warm, but pretty rough – as if they were covered in gloves.

Then, the sound of automatic fire mere feet behind her deafened her, leaving her ears ringing loudly, and her head spinning.

Somebody was standing right behind her, firing at the doorway, the bullets streaking and entering the dark innards of the UFO. 

The cold hands at her ankles let her go, as she was dragged farther from the craft, by the man with gloves on his hands.

She could now discern in the darkness of night a trio of dark shapes (human shapes!) entering the dark doorway of the alien vessel with black rifles in their hands.

She wanted to scream, she wanted to warn them not to go in there, but she still couldn't move. They were entering the domain of the aliens, hell itself!!

She couldn't think logically after all that she had been through.

After a few minutes (they sure seemed longer to Kelley…), the three soldiers emerged from the craft.

"UFO secured, sir!" she heard one of them addressing the person who dragged her from the UFO, and who was standing beside her, guarding her. She couldn't see him though – he was standing out of her limited field of view.

"Excellent" the man replied, "You all did well".

He must be the commander, thought Kelley. She was still in a complete state of shock, but she was starting to feel the effects of the alien paralyzing device dissipate.

"How many casualties we have?" asked the same commander who Kelley could not see.

"Santiago and Dean are out, sir. Demler is barely alive – he got a plasma bolt straight in the leg. It looks bad. He lost enough blood already, and Lee says that if we're not taking off right now, he won't make it home, sir. Anyway, it looks that with half of his right leg blown up from under him, he's out of commission for good" The soldier concluded.

Though Kelley hasn't heard most of his words due to the ringing in her ears, she understood from his tone of speech that the casualties were pretty bad.

"And how many we nailed today?" The commander asked again.

"Well, sir, there were 3 Sectoids in the apartment, with two additional ones guarding the house from the outside. There were three Sectoids in the UFO, two of them ran out to reinforce their buddies when we showed up, leaving one Sectoid and a Reaper inside"

"A Reaper?" the commander asked, surprised. "With a Sectoid task force?" But he was apparently just pondering to himself, addressing no one in particular.

Kelley pondered about it. Sectoids… The greys… But she had no clue how a Reaper could look though. Such a creature was not covered in any science fiction movie she ever seen.

Then, she heard the commander talking again.

"Hmmm… what should I do with her…" he was apparently addressing Kelley.

"Perhaps we should call corporal Lee, sir. He would know how to treat her"

"Don't tell me what to do, private! I was talking to myself, not to you!" the commander was clearly upset.

They called this Lee, whoever he was, and Kelley saw an Asian young man running to their direction.

"What's this?" he asked as soon as he was leaning over her.

"Paralyzed… she was apparently their abduction target…" the commander growled quietly.

Lee leaned over Kelley and started to examine her eyes with a small flashlight.

"Well, she's fully awake. She was hearing your conversation the whole time, sir" Lee chuckled.

The other soldier near Kelley wore a surprised look on his face, and was looking straight at her, curious.

A funny situation, but Kelley was hardly in the mood for any laughs.

"Well, the effects of the alien stunning device should dissipate in… oh…. About half an hour or so. But I could speed up the process" Lee said. He then pulled out a squirt, filled it with a brownish liquid and injected it into her arm.

The effect was immediate.

She was starting to feel as if her body was taken out from a fridge, and put under the warmth of the sun in a desert. The numb parts of here body were quickly starting to come back to life.

After merely two minutes, she was up on her feet with tear in her eyes. What she had experienced tonight was horror beyond imagination. She didn't had any clue why she was spared, while other people around the world were abducted and experimented upon (she now fully believed the stories).

But she was very thankful, and said that much to the commander.

The commander, a black man in his forties, looked upon her, and suddenly brought his rifle to bear on her.

She recoiled in shock.

"If you ever mention this night and what happened here to anybody, we will have to return and finish you off!" the commander growled. "You mention this to _no one_! You chat about this with _no one_! N-o o-n-e! Do you understand me!?!"

"Yes… yes sir…" she managed to murmur.

She felt completely and totally miserable.

"Very good!" he barked. "Soldiers!!! We're outta here!"

The other soldiers started to run to the length of the road, disappearing behind the sharp turn a 100 meters from the house.

Corporal Lee and the other soldier nearby, the private-with-no-name, gazed upon her meaningfully, reminding her not to forget the commander's words, then went running with the rest of the soldiers.

The commander turned to go with them but stopped.

"One more thing. A recovery team is going to be here in 5 minutes, taking the alien craft and bodies. By then you should be sitting quietly in your room, making no noise. Understand?" he waited a bit, saw her nod, and took of running.

Less than a minute after he disappeared behind the turn, a loud roar was heard from a distance, and she saw an airplane, unlike anything she seen before (though not as alien as the UFO) taking off vertically and rocketing somewhere to west, leaving her behind, shaking violently in the cold air of an early Chicago morning.


	2. II

AUTHOR'S NOTE: 

Well, here is the second chapter of Hideous Heavens.

It includes a rather… _familiar_ scene (clue…)

Enjoy and review (don't be lazy! Is it that difficult to click "go" in the bottom of the page and write a few words? And don't worry; I'm not afraid of criticism or negative reviews!)

Chapter 2 

The following days were very difficult for Kelley.

She had to return to her studies, to forget everything what happened. Every time she remembered the night _they_ came, everything inside her went cold, and she quickly become depressed. She now knew that aliens _do_ exist, that there _is_ some kind of a government conspiracy, just like so many people have claimed over the years, but she also knew that she cannot disclose the secret… 

Such knowledge was a great burden to carry, and she was having a hard time keeping it all inside her, without any hope of ever revealing her deepest fears and darkest secrets to anyone at all.

And soon enough it started to affect her concentration in the classroom.

All the while, she eagerly waited for her boyfriend to return from England. Although she knew she couldn't share her feelings even with him, she still wanted his comforting company, to feel his warm body press against hers during the night, giving her a feeling of utter security and erasing all the worries from her head.

But to make matters worse, he called the day before his supposed arrival, and told her that there were complications at the meeting, and it'll take him several more days to return.

From a young successful woman, Kelley Hombres turned into a tired paranoid caricature of her former self.

She continued to carry on her everyday chores - study, go shopping, clean the house… but every time the sun disappeared beyond the horizon, and sparse light streets began to light up, all the windows and doors in the house were closed and thoroughly locked. Kelley now kept a big butcher's knife near her bed at all times.

She was often unable to go to sleep, staring at the empty ceiling until a thin thread of golden light started to lighten the horizon, announcing the approaching dawn. At these times, she nervously jumped at every slightest noise she could hear from the outside – a passing car, airplane, or the kids of the neighbors having a late party in their house, behind the curve of the road a hundred meters away. Sometimes she would drop into sleep with relative ease, but when that happened, she usually woke very early, sweat pouring from her forehead, her eyes wide in fear. She repeatedly relived in her dreams the day she was abducted. Sometimes, her dreams carried her even further – she dreamt she was pulled into the silvery craft before the soldiers had a chance to pull her out. She was strapped, naked, to an examination table, and the horrible faces of the "Sectoids" hovered above her, laughing at her helplessness. And there was always a distant dark figure in her dreams, watching her delightedly with its red gleaming eyes…

Sometimes, right before waking up, she could feel cold, moist hands on her skin. She then always opened her eyes in horror, but the horrible feeling always faded away along with her dreams.

Yes.

Her life were now definitely not the same as before…

---

One day, everything changed for the worse, again.

Kelley was driving home on her way from the university, which was located deep in the bowels of Chicago itself. Her small red car of Japanese manufacture was speeding lonely on the road, heading out of the vast city.

Kelley was driving with a grim expression drawn on her face, as usual.

The words of her favorite teacher were echoing in her head: _"Miss Hombres, if you won't start concentrating in my lessons, I'm afraid you wouldn't pass for a kindergartener, not to say anything about _highschool teacher!"

The second thing that she was most afraid of these days had happened – her grades started to lower, only slightly, but lowering nonetheless. She only hoped that with the return of her boyfriend she would become more relaxed, so she could still correct her mistakes and graduate successfully at the end of the term.

Another car passed by her, almost clipping her car's left side-mirror.

"Watch it asshole!" she shouted.

The car turned slightly right, and now was blocking her way, forcing her to slow down.

"Come on! Let me pass you moron!" she shouted out of the open window, horning several times to hurry-up the idiot. But the car only slowed down even more.

Suddenly, Kelley realized another thing.

An identical car – shining black in color, long and sleek - was trailing her car behind, almost touching her rear bumper.

Now Kelley also noticed that both cars were lacking license plates!

She was so confused!

A bundle of contradicting thoughts passed through her head at hypersonic speeds.

Who were these guys? They had something with the aliens? Perhaps they are affiliated with the soldiers that stormed their craft, somehow? Or… or perhaps there are _aliens_ inside the cars! That is a real possibility! What human being would be stupid enough to drive on the road without license plates, where every passing cop could arrest them? Or… well, perhaps they removed them just minutes ago, so no witnesses could remember them while they… while they do what? kidnap her? What do these guys want with her anyway?

She was going to find out very soon.

The three cars were by now crawling, their speed barely faster than that of a pedestrian.

And finally, the forward car stopped, and Kelley had to stop too.

She was now completely trapped, unable to escape the cars flanking her.

Now she started to regret that she didn't take her chance and turn sharply left while she still had the chance.

The driver's door of the front car opened, and a young man wearing a black official suit, complete with a black tie, stepped out. He approached her immobile vehicle with a slow, calm pace, of a man who is in total control of the situation.

She also noted how neatly his hair was combed, and how not a single speck of dust adhered to his shining expensive shoes.

He stopped near the open window of Kelley's car.

"Miss Hombres?" he said in a quiet emotionless voice, not bothering to bend his head closer to the window so she could hear him better.

"Yes, that's me!" her voice was sounding very nervous, unlike the man who she was speaking with. "And you are…."

"Call me John"

"Allright, _John_, who are you exactly and what the heck do you want from me?" she couldn't believe the words that were coming out of her mouth. The experience with the aliens apparently hardened her a lot more than she ever suspected.

"I am… a _CIA _representative. We received a… _note_, indicating a certain… _incident_ at or near you house, nearly a week ago. Am I correct?"

Kelley did not like the man's manner of speech. He was calm, but too slow in his talking, and always paused slightly after saying several words. She could also discern a slight accent in his speech, but she couldn't identify it.

"Yes, John, you are quite correct. Now, you are here to…"

"To take you to… a _safe_ place, where the _government_ representatives will take a _good_ care of you" after seeing the displeased look on Kelley's face he added, "It is useless to resist. We have an arrest warrant in case you do. We really mean you no harm, but you see… we need to carefully _monitor and observe_ all those who had… who had contact with… well, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about…"

Kelley indeed knew _what_ he was talking about.

She also understood the hopelessness of her situation. She isn't strong enough physically to resist a healthy male in his 20's, and his buddies that undoubtedly were sitting inside the cars, waiting for John to give them the signal.

And worse yet, they were apparently operating completely legally, with orders directly from the legal authorities. Or were they?

"Can you show me a CIA badge or something? And also, this arrest warrant you were talking about?

The man put his hands into his jacket, and presented her with the proper papers.

As far as she could discern there was nothing wrong with them. Yet somehow, she couldn't trust these men. She recalled reading somewhere about people who claimed the government is hiding the existence of the aliens since 1947, when an alien craft crashed in the USA territory. She never believed the "government conspiracy" claims before, but after seeing aliens with her own eyes, feeling them as they carried her to their craft, this possibility looked real enough.

So who are they? Are they here to… silence her? But that… commander or whatever told her that night that she doesn't have anything to worry about if she doesn't open her mouth! Or did he? She tried to frantically remember his exact words, but she couldn't. Too much had happened that day, and the details that she could remember most clearly were also the ones she preferred to forget.

"Well? Are you going to step out of the vehicle?" asked 'John'. His voice did not betray the slightest clue of impatience or emotion. It was just a question, plain and simple.

"OK, you got me" she said while opening the door and stepping out of the car.

She slammed the door shot and shot a slightly angry look at John.

"This way please" the man pointed to the car he was driving before, and started walking toward it in his calm, confident pace.

Kelley looked upon the overconfident man.

Now it was the time to make her escape.

She started to run. Her only hope was to get lost somewhere in the sandy hills, where their cars couldn't follow her. Her situation was nearly hopeless, and she knew it, but the impulse of the moment continued to drive her further and further without looking back.

Suddenly, she felt something sting her back, penetrating right through the clothes.

Everything started to spin; her vision got foggy and lost its focus. She tried to run further, but she was slowing down with every pace, until she was merely dragging herself on, resisting the urge to drop, powerless, to the earth.

But as the drug reached her brain, she could not resist any longer.

Her body fell to the ground and lied motionless, a small silver arrow protruding out of her back…

John approached her, a small arbalest in his hand.

This arbalest was a very rare black market item – an ideal tool of assassination.

It's arrows were quick and lethal, and although it didn't had the range of a sniper rifle, it had a numerous advantages over his modern counterpart – it was quiet, it was without flash, he was without recoil, and it could be loaded with different kinds of arrows.

Fortunately for Kelley, the arrow that struck her was a soporific one, merely putting her into dreamless slumber rather than causing any serious damage.

'John' motioned a couple men who stepped out of the car a moment ago, to help him carry her limp body.

As the men, dressed similarly to John, approached the scene, John grinned delightedly.

Mission accomplished… His superiors will be pleased.

Then, the grin disappeared from his face like it was never there, and the three lifted Kelley and started to pace toward the parked cars.

(If you've read the story 'Familiar Foe', you would notice a slightly similar scene to the one in which the cars stopped Kelley. ^_^

That's all. REVIEW. I _need_ to know what my readers think about my work – that's the only way I could tell whether my writing was good enough, or that I have anything to improve, or to add)


	3. III

Chapter 3 

Somewhere, in a secret underground government facility, a short balding man in his fifties was bending over X-Ray photography. He was wearing a white doctor's smock, with a silvery metal badge. "Dr. S. Watson", the badge read. Standing behind him were several men dressed in official black suits. Their attention was entirely focused on the doctor and the photography, their straight body posture betraying military training and discipline.

"Well… Hombres is _definitely_ pregnant," the doctor finally muttered. "Ah… it's quite difficult to tell at such an early stage if the fetus is human or not, but considering she was impregnated while her mate wasn't even in the country, and we _do_ have evidence that she was successfully abducted several days after their initial attempt, the one we foiled, we have to assume that it _is_ a Sectoid fetus we are dealing here with." The doctor informed all this mechanically, while his mind was in a completely different place. Poor girl… All these nightmares and paranoia, but she was abducted _anyway_ without even knowing it! But what he said aloud wasn't even remotely similar to his thoughts. "It simply _has_ to be alien, because there is no other viable explanation for her pregnancy but alien fertilization. We haven't performed a psychological test yet, but it is highly improbable that Hombres would want to cheat on her boyfriend so shortly after experiencing what she has," he concluded, tapping his finger all the while on a bright shapeless spot on the photography, which represented the several-days-old embryo in Kelley's womb.

The men standing behind him exchanged glances. Only a specially trained man could ever hope of reading their seemingly emotionless expressions, which bore a slight satisfaction. One of them, a man with jet-black short hair and a small accurate moustache, asked a question.

"Is there any way of knowing for sure that this is what we are looking for? A genuine live Sectoid fetus?"

"Well, well…" replied the doctor, scratching his beard. "We can of course perform additional tests here, so we could know for sure. Of course, the tests will take several days, and in the meanwhile her disappearance from home and school will be noticed…"

"It doesn't mater" interrupted a tall red haired woman, one of the men in black. "She was absent for two days now anyway"

"Tell your men to proceed with the examination. We have to know for _sure_" the man with the moustache said.

The men in black waited for the nervous doctor to nod, then turned as one, and walked out of the room.

The doctor wiped his forehead with a handkerchief. He then proceeded to instruct his men on the next set of examinations.

---

Kelley Hombres was crying again.

Tears were pouring down her cheeks uncontrollably, her gentle sobs sounding very loud in the small empty cell in which she was imprisoned for days now.

There were no windows here at all – a big round lamp was casting cold white light upon her claustrophobic four on four meters (13 on 13 feet) cell. Tiny air vents delivered the oxygen she needed to the room, and similarly tiny pipes delivered her water and soup-like food – both pipes were too small for even a mouse to fit through, not to mention a human being. Escape was _impossible_.

A camera watched her day and night, the unblinking lens observing her from a small socket in the wall covered with bulletproof glass that protected it from harm (and Kelley _had_ attempted to harm it during the past days).

Her only equipment here was a bowl and a glass for containing her food and water. There was nothing there that could aid her escape. She was completely stripped not only of equipment, but also of any clothes – she was naked as the day of her birth.

A toilet was installed at one corner, along with a roll of toilet paper. Her bed was a small rubber pad, which she dragged to another corner of the room, the farthest one from the door. The door could be best described as a _hatch_, which opened only once or twice a day. Every time it did, Kelley recoiled in fear, waiting again for the hissing sound of soporific gas to fill the room. When that happened, she always woke back in her cell, but sometimes there were strange marks left on her body, proving her that she was indeed carried out of the cell while unconscious, and delivered back before she ever had a chance to wake up.

She was very close to loosing her mind. She felt very cold and vulnerable, sitting naked under the bright light with a camera pointed straight at her. The light never dimmed, so it was impossible to know the hour of day, and even harder to fall asleep on her rough "bed" even without considering the lack of any blanket to cover herself with. She tried to estimate how long she was here by the regular feeding, but being put to sleep several times over without any ability to know how long she was unconscious had spoiled all her attempts.

She didn't had the slightest clue what was she doing here, or why was she treated like some lab animal, but she figured that her abductors were human. After all, that _John_ (a shiver went through her body every time she remembered that creepy man) looked quite human, although he didn't act like one. After she was rendered unconscious during her attempt to escape back at the road, she woke up in this cell, and nothing changed ever since. The inability to count time and her complete lack of knowledge and understanding of what is happening to her drove her mad, along with the horrible conditions of her imprisonment. Most of the time she just cried, and tried not to think about her future.

She never dared to hope that she would get out of here some day.

But today was not going to be quite the same…

Yet again, the door to her chamber hissed open. As always, she felt dizziness and before she had a chance to move a muscle, or to notice the figures of several men wearing gas masks entering the cell, she slumped to the floor and darkness embraced her…

---

In the meanwhile, not so far away from the dormant Kelley Hombres, a tall handsome man with light brown hair unlocked the door to his house and entered the room.

"Kelley? Honey? I'm home!"

No response.

"Kell? It's me, Mat! Where are you dear?"

Everything was quiet; the only sound was that of a car passing by the house outside.

Matthew McKinley, Kelley Hombres' boyfriend for the last 4 years, took off his coat and thrown it unto a chair. Then he went on to the bedroom, but found no sign of his girlfriend. He looked at the bundle of papers he held in his left hand.

Kelley was gone and left no notes, at least not one he could easily find, and the mailbox was full of letters that must've been accumulating for something like a week. He started to read the writings on the envelope.

"Bills… bills… bills…" he muttered. There were also a couple of letters from Kelley's parents and a friend of hers, as well as one letter for him. He stood there in the living room, unsure of what to do, chewing his own nails.

Then, suddenly, he grabbed the phone and called 911.

"Uh, hello? I want to report of a missing person…"

---

In half an hour a police car was already parked near Kelley and Matthew's house. A pair of officers was asking Mat some questions.

"And when have you seen your girlfriend lately?" asked the older officer, who had streaks of grey and white in his messy hair.

"I… a couple of weeks ago, I think. I was in England, as part of my job…"

"You've already explained what you're working at, Mr. McKinley. It will be more helpful for us if you could describe what she looks like, or better yet show us a picture of hers."

"Yes, yes of course…" Matthew taken out a wallet from his pocket and started to dig through it frantically, dropping all kinds of cards in the process. "Ah, here it is!"

The officer took the picture from Mat's exited hands, and lifted it higher, so he could see it better in the dim light.

It was a picture that was obviously taken not a long time ago. There were Mat and Kelley, hugging, on a beautiful beach on a sunny day.

"It's from our vacation at Miami," explained Mat.

The officer cast a look at his younger partner, who returned the look, and then he put the picture into his pocket.

"We will need that, it will be returned to you after we'll make a copy. So you have any idea where she could be? Have you tried to call her relatives or friends? Maybe she has a cell phone?"

"No. No to all of the questions. I didn't call her relatives, and she doesn't possess a cellular phone…"

"I see… well, why won't we start from calling her closest relatives then? Do you know who are they and can you get their phone numbers?"

And so it went on and on for the most of the day. But soon enough, the police was about to realize that they had a real and serious case of a missing person on their hands…

---

"Careful with her! If we scratch her we're going to lose our necks over this!" barked the Sergeant in charge at the robust-looking soldiers who were carrying a stretcher with a real sleeping beauty strapped to it with leather belts.

"Hey, CJ, where the f*** is she going anyway?" asked one of the curious soldiers.

"Shut your hole Waller!!! I don't know who is she or where is she going, but frankly, I don't give a f***" spit was flying out of the Sarge's mouth in every direction while he shouted at the cheeky soldier. "It ain't our job to deal with this sh**! Our job is to load the girl up into that Hercules transport along with the other cargo, and let the pilot decide bout the destination! Understood?"

"Sir, yes sir!" the soldier saluted sarcastically, then burst into a loud laugher.

"F*** you Waller…" the Sergeant shook his head slowly.

Discipline among the soldiers was very loose at one of the government's most secret bases, where there was never any action and the soldiers got to know each other personally, developing close and friendly relations even between different ranks.

"CJ, check this out! Black suits at nine o' clock!" said another soldier in a lot quieter voice than that either the Sergeant or private Waller used before.

The Sergeant could see three figures approaching to the airplane in a confident stride.

"Move it soldiers, move it!" shouted the Sergeant, and immediately his soldiers hurried and started to load the stretcher onto the plane's cargo bay.

When superior officers or civilians were hanging around, none of the rank-and-file soldiers could afford to openly show affection and friendship with each other. They automatically became rough and experienced grunts, assuring the security and the smooth flow of tasks at the base.

The officially suited men approached the Sergeant, who didn't dare to look at them directly, continuing to seemingly supervise the loading process instead.

"Good evening, Sergeant Hobson. And how are we feeling today?" asked the man who apparently was the leader of the other two.

"Fine, sir…" gulped the Sergeant. He surely hoped that he did not look as nervous as he felt.

"Well, I am… _glad_ to see that everything is proceeding according to schedule. Keep up the excellent work… _Sergeant_" he said, wearing the slightest of smiles on his face. He then turned to another direction and started walking away. The other two, a man and woman, stared at him for a second from behind their sunglasses, then joined the first one.

They didn't see the Sergeant's sigh of relief, nor would they care if they saw it.

The leader of the three, a young man with neatly combed hair, was satisfied so far. His and his superior's suspicions were finally confirmed – that thing in Hombre's womb was a Sectoid beyond any doubt. Now they were charged with escorting the unconscious victim to the primary research base at Area 51, where they had some of the best-equipped laboratories in the world. There they would probably study the fetus further, perhaps even raise it after its birth, eventually, gaining further data on the aliens and their bio-technology. Information… in the secret yet brutal war against the aliens, lack of information could mean disaster, and quite literally. Quite a number of lives were already lost due to the screw-ups of the Intelligence Division of the Extra-Terrestrial Combat Unit.

John, part of the forces responsible for combat with the aliens but _not_ a part of the elite Combat Unit, was performing his duty quite adequately, and he was completely satisfied with himself. He did have some pity at the poor girl – after all, he _was_ a human being, although he usually thought of himself only as an expensive tool rather than an individual with his own life. He wasn't interested in living on his own, struggling for promotion in his everyday life. He genuinely preferred the thrills and challenge of his job instead, so he never felt disappointed about choosing his present path. 

In his field of work any feelings and emotions were only bound to interfere with his ability to perform his mission, thus delaying the fat paycheck that would add up to his small fortune at the end of every month.

For this reason, pity was not something he was very good at…

Author's Notes:

Well, how was _that_? I feel a slight improvement in my own writing, don't you? Well, I hope that you enjoyed my latest chapter. Be sure that more will follow soon enough. Again I implore you to review if you read this. Although I enjoy the process of writing by itself, there's nothing like a pat on the back, or a good healthy flame to motivate me.


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